Bayern Munich’s difficult summer transfer window, which saw them miss out on top targets Florian Wirtz and Nick Woltemade to Liverpool FC and Newcastle United, respectively, was always going to end with
some disgruntled comments from Bayern officials. Uli Hoeneß offered his usual spicy input, but it would Karl-Heinz Rummenigge’s interview that would make the rounds in Germany and England, as his comments could literally be translated into calling Newcastle “idiots” for spending so much money to get Woltemade.
There was some immediate retaliation from some Newcastle players, but never Woltemade himself. The former Werder Bremen player, however, was finally ready to talk during international duty with Germany, however, and explained that the situation was really not that serious:
“My teammates commented on it, I didn’t. I think that was the right thing to do,” Woltemade explained to German news site Bild am Sonntag, as captured by @iMiaSanMia. “A lot was made of my name, Bayern, and transfer fee during the summer; that was the story of the summer. To answer your question: the headlines everywhere said ‘idiots’ — but I read Mr. Rummenigge’s entire statement – it was certainly somewhat unfortunate, but not quite so dramatic.”
Kudos to him for taking the time to read the entire statement, because he is right. While there were certainly sour grapes involved with the comments due to Bayern’s struggle with the Premier League’s supreme financial strength and KHR really should have known better than to say the word idiot, Rummenigge was merely using a German idiom that news sites all over took too literally in order to make a headline. Given he is German, Woltemade likely figured this out quickly.
